The New Populations project identifies immigrant communities throughout the state in an effort to document how they maintain their traditional culture. Within each community, researchers located major tradition-bearers, artists, artifacts, and organizations. Records contain research materials, field reports, essay drafts, print-outs of final essays from the Louisiana Folklife Program website, photograph indexes, digital photographs, release forms, and interview transcripts in both analog and digital formats (unless otherwise noted). Interviews (recorded 2002-2009) are available on cassette tape and digitally unless otherwise indicated. Some recordings are of music or community events.

Administrative/Biographical History Element

"The New Populations Initiative of the Louisiana Division of the Arts Folklife Program reaches out to our state's immigrant and refugee communities. The goal is to address an underserved sector within the cultural economy and provide an opportunity to engage these communities in the identification and documentation of their traditional culture and art forms.

The focus of New Populations research has been on communities with foreign-born members. However, documentation included the cultural practices of second- and sometimes third- generation community members, who are part of the cultural whole. Some of the individual artists who were documented for the project have lived in Louisiana for over forty years, while others have been here for only a few years. New Populations documentation revealed that many immigrant communities have created non-profit organizations to support their cultural activities. These organizations may conduct language schools, produce concerts, and hold community celebrations. Many immigrant communities center around religious affiliation with a church, temple, or mosque. Some of Louisiana's cultural communities are comprised of individuals who would be unlikely to know each other back in their countries of origin, but who have sought out others from home, or those who speak their language or practice the same religion."